Medvl-Sauces-Art

Medvl-Sauces-art - 5/30/15

"Before Béchamel & Hollandaise - an Introduction to Medieval Sauces" by Mistress Euriol of Lothian, O.P.

NOTE: See also the files: sauces-msg, The-Saucebook-art, Balled-Mustrd-art, garlic-sauces-msg, green-sauces-msg, Mustard-Making-art, flavord-butrs-msg, spreads-msg.

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NOTICE -

This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium.

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

Thank you,

Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous

stefan at florilegium.org

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More class handouts from this author can be found at:

http://medievalcuisine.madpage.com/classes/

http://casbal.100webspace.net/classes/index.html

Before Béchamel & Hollandaise -

an Introduction to Medieval Sauces

by Mistress Euriol of Lothian, O.P.

Table of Contents

Before Béchamel & Hollandaise -

an Introduction to Medieval Sauces 1

Table of Contents 1

Introduction 1

Modern Sauces 1

Humoral Theory 2

The Medieval "Mother" Sauces 3

Thickening Agents 3

The Recipes 3

Cameline Sauce 3

Mustard Sauce 3

Appendix 4

Sauces from Extant Medieval Manuscripts 4

Sauces for Meats & Fish 11

Bibliography 13

Contact Information 14

Introduction

Sauces are a means for a culinary artist to add a special flare to ordinary meats and fishes. In the great households of the Middle Ages there was a position whose job it was to create sauces. He (or she) was called the Saucer[[1]]. Then the cook would take the sauces prepared by the Saucer and pair them with the appropriate meats or fish. Just what type of sauces did the Saucer create?

Modern Sauces

It is difficult to begin a discussion on medieval sauces without first referencing the sauces that are used in modern cuisine. Many new students into the medieval culinary arts desire to work with methods and ingredients they are familiar with, and the making of sauces is no exception.[[2]] On her web site, What's Cooking America, Linda Stradley states the following:

"Mother Sauces - Also called Grand Sauces. These are the five most basic sauces that every cook should master. Antonin Careme, founding father of French "grande cuisine," came up with the methodology in the early 1800's by which hundreds of sauces would be categorized under five Mother Sauces, and there are infinite possibilities for variations, since the sauces are all based on a few basic formulas."[[3]]

The five mother sauces are Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Hollandaise, and Tomato.[[4]] The earliest evidence of any of these sauces can currently only be traced backed to the 17th century.

The cuisine of Europe was undergoing tremendous changes as it emerged from the Renaissance. With the publication of Le Cuisinier François in 1656, by François Pierre de la Varenne, French cuisine belonged to the modern era.[[5]]

Humoral Theory

In order to begin to understand the medieval cook's approach to cuisine, including the making of sauces, it is important to understand the humoral theory as it applies to food. Each food ingredient was categorized on two basic qualities; if it were moist or dry and hot or cold. The qualities of the humors were given a degree of intensity. Intensity ranged from the 1st to 4th degree. In addition the method of preparation would also affect the humoral qualities of the food. Table 1 lists the four basic humors, it's qualities, the season and element associated with it[[6]]

Table 1 - The Four Humors

Humor / Quality / Season / Element /
Blood (Sanguine) / Moist & Hot / Spring / Air
Yellow Bile (Choler) / Dry & Hot / Summer / Fire
Black Bile (Melancholy) / Dry & Cold / Autumn / Earth
Phlegm / Moist & Cold / Winter / Water

The humoral theory of food certainly has its background in the teachings of Hippocrates in the 5th century BCE.[[7]] It was further refined in the treatises by Galen in the 2nd century.[[8]] Sauces were used to balance out the humors of the food stuff well into the 16th century.

There were two different goals for the medieval cook. For the healthy diner, the goal was to provide a dish (or series of dishes) where the humoral qualities of the ingredients were used to balance each other into a neutral state. For the ill, the goal was to provide a dish (or series of dishes) where the humoral qualities of the ingredients were used to balance the humors of the individual in order to bring him back into a healthy "neutral" state.

"In choosing or in elaborating a sauce a cook accepted an enormously serious responsibility. At this time an ignorance of the humoral complexion of any ingredient could easily lead to a charge of inadvertently undermining someone's health, or even murder. A cook's job was in many respects an offshoot of that of a physician; he had almost as much responsibility."[[9]]

With the knowledge at hand of the humors of any given ingredient, including spices, the medieval cook can now make a variety of sauces to suit his needs. There were four basic uses for sauces: basting sauces, cooking sauces, serving sauces and dipping sauces. In many of the extant medieval texts on cuisine that is currently available, there are notable sections devoted to the making of sauces. Some sauces were cooked (boiled), some were not (cold).

The Medieval "Mother" Sauces

Unlike the modern mother sauces that are used as a basis for a vast variety of sauces, these medieval "mother" sauces appear in almost all the cuisines I've studied. These sauces can be found in almost all the cuisines of the Middle Ages. They are Cameline Sauce, Green Sauce, White Sauce, Yellow Pepper Sauce, Black Pepper Sauce and Mustard Sauce.][10]]

Thickening Agents

Not all medieval sauces were thickened, some sauces described were simply a dressing of verjuice. Many of the sauces, however, were thickened. For some sauces the main flavor ingredient itself could be the thickening agents, as in the case of mustard. Some sauces used reduction as a means to thicken it. Other sauces used an ingredient whose sole purpose was to thicken the sauce. In the modern mother sauces mentioned previously, a common thickening agent was roux.[[11]] However, currently there is no evidence of roux being used prior to the 17th century. The predominant thickening agents used in medieval sauces are: breadcrumbs, eggs, milk, almonds and almond milk. There is evidence that eggs were tempered prior to being introduced to a boiled sauce.[[12]]

The Recipes

Cameline Sauce

Source: Le Viander de Taillevent[[13]]

Prenez gingenbre, canelle et grant foison, girofle, grainne de paradiz, mastic, poivre long qui veult; puis coullez pain trempé en vin aigre, et passez, et sallez bien a point.

Take ginger, plenty of cassia, cloves, grains of paradise, mastic thyme and long pepper (if you wish). Sieve bread soaked in vinegar, strain [through cheesecloth], and salt to taste.[[14]]

1 cup breadcrumbs / 8 tsp ground cinnamon
4 cups red wine vinegar / 8 tsp ground thyme
8 tsp ground ginger / 4 tsp ground pepper

Soak bread crumbs in vinegar, add remaining ingredients. Adjust vinegar or add water until desired consistency is reached.

Mustard Sauce

Source: Le Ménagier de Paris[[15]]

…Item, et se vous la voulez faire bonne et à loisir, mectez le senevé tremper par une nuyt en bon vinaigre, puis la faictes bien broyer au moulin, et bien petit à petit destremper de vinaigre. Et se vous aves des espices qui soient de remenant de gelée, de claré, d'ypocras ou de saulces, si soient broyées avec et après la laissier parer.

Item, if you would make good mustard and at leisure, set the mustard seed to soak for a night in good vinegar, then grind it in a mill and then moisten it little by little with vinegar; and if you have any spices left over from jelly, clarry, hippocras or sauces, let them be ground with it and afterwards prepare it.[[16]]

Hippocras: Take four ounces of very fine cinnamon, two ounces of fine cassia flowers, an ounce of selected Mecca ginger, an ounce of grains of paradise, and a sixth [of an ounce] of nutmeg and galingale combined. Crush then all together. Take a good half ounce of this powder and eight ounces of sugar [(which thus makes Sweet Powder)], and mix it with a quart of wine.

1 1/2 cups mustard seeds / 1/4 tsp pepper
1 3/4 cups white wine vinegar / pinch nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon / pinch galingale
1/2 tsp ginger / 2 tsp sugar

Soak mustard seeds overnight. Place all ingredients in blender and process. Add more vinegar or water until desired consistency is reached.

Appendix

Sauces from Extant Medieval Manuscripts

Table 2 lists the variety of boiled and cold sauces found in extant medieval manuscripts

Table 2 - Medieval Sauces

Source / Author / Place & Time / Sauces [[17]] /
Libro de arte coquinaria [[18]] / Maestro Martino da Como / Italy, 15th Century / White Sauce
Gold of Pleasure Sauce
Peacock Sauce
Dried Prune Sauce
Green Sauce
Peach Blossom Sauce
Broom Flower Sauce
Grape Sauce
Mulberry Sauce
Black Cherry or Sour Cherry Sauce
Cornel Cherry Sauce
Mustard
Red or Violet Mustard
Mustard that can be Carried in Pieces on Horseback
Heavenly Summertime Sauce
Yellow Pepper Sauce for Fish
White Garlic Sauce
Violet Garlic Sauce
Green Verjuice
Sauce (Grape leaf & Garlic)
Verjuice with Fennel
Rose-Apple Sauce
Sauce for Pullet Pieces
Sauce for Hare
Good Sauce
Lemon Sauce
Sauce for Marzipan
Sauce for Every Type of Wild Beast
Saracen Sauce
Everyday Sauce
Northern Italian Sauce
French-Style Sauce for Partridge, Hen or Other Fowl
Papal Sauce
Regal Sauce
French Mustard
Vivendier [[19]] / Unknown / France, 15th century / Barbe Robert
Cameline Sauce
Cameline Garlic Sauce
White Garlic Sauce
Yellow Pepper Sauce
Hot Black Pepper Sauce
Jance of Cow's Milk
Viandier of Taillevent [[20]] / Guillaume Tirel / France, 13th century / Cameline Sauce
Fresh Herring Garlic Sauce
(Almond Garlic Sauce)
Green Sauce
A Sauce to Preserve Sea-Fish
Robert's Beard Sauce
Yellow Pepper Sauce
Black Pepper Sauce
Cow's Milk Jance
Garlic Jance
Ginger Jance
Poitevin Sauce
Cameline Mustard Sauce
Marjoram Sauce
Le Ménagier de Paris [[21]] / Unknown / France, 14th century / Mustard
Sorrel Verjuice
Cameline Sauce
White or Green Garlic Sauce for Ducklings or Beef
Musty Garlic for Fresh Herrings
Green Spice Sauce
Green Pickle for Preserving Salt-Water Fish
Yellow or Sharp Pepper Sauce
Black Pepper Sauce
Galentine for Carp
Saupiquet for Coney, River Fowl or Wood Pigeons
Calimafrée or Lazy Sauce
Jance of Cow's Milk
Garlic Jance
Jance
Poitevine Sauce
Must for Young Capons
Quick Sauce for a Capon
Sauce to be put to Boil in Pasties of Halebrans, Ducklings, Little Rabbits and Wild Coneys
Boar's Tail Sauce
Sauce for a Capon or Hen
Sauce for Eggs Poached in Oil
De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine[[22]] / Bartolomeo Sacchi / Italy, 15th century / Pepper Sauce for Wild Meat
Lard Sauce
Consommé Saffron Sauce
White Sauce
Green Sauce
White Sauce
Camelline Sauce
Bright Colored Sauce
Relish from dried Plums
Green Relish
Persian Relish
Broom-colored Relish
Relish from Grapes
Relish from Mulberries
Relish with Sweet and Sour Cherries
Mustard
Red Mustard Sauce
Mustard Sauce in Bits
Heavenly Relish in Summer
Saffron-Seasoned Sauce for Fish
Garlic Sauce with Walnuts or Almonds
Rather Highly Colored Garlic Sauce
Green Verjuice
Vine Tendril Relish
Verjuice with Fennel
Rose Bud Flavoring
Relish from Cornel Cherries
Libellus de arte coquinaria[[23]] / Unknown / Denmark, Iceland & Germany, 13th century. / A Sauce for Lords
Another Sauce (Honey Mustard)
Another Sauce (Honey Mustard with Anise)
Fish in a Sauce Proper to It
A Sauce of Minimal Cost
A Sauce Good for Small Fish
A Sauce Good for Three Days and No More (Green Sauce)
A Sauce for Fresh Meat
(Another Green Sauce)
Onion Sauce
Daz bůch von gůter spise [[24]] / Unknown / Germany, 14th century / A dish (Garlic Sauce)
Agraz (Sour Sauce)
Another Condiment (Shallot Sauce)
A Sauce (Grape & Sage Sauce)
Agraz (Crab apple & Beet Sauce)
A Little Sauce (Yellow Sauce)
A Good Sauce (Wine & Honey Sauce)
Samuel Pepys' manuscript [[25]] / Unknown / England, 15th century / Capons in Sauce
Salmon roasted in Sauce
Galantine
Sauce for a Pike
Sauce for roated Mallard
A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye [[26]] / Unknown / England, 16th century / A Pyke Sauce
Harleian MS. 4016 [[27]] / Unknown / England, 15th century / Sauce Gamelyne
Sauce Sermstele
Sauce Oylepeuer
Sauce Verte
Sauce Gynger
Sauce Sorell
Sauce Galentyne
Ashmole MS. 1439. Sauces [[28]] / Unknown / England, 15th century / Sauces pur Diuerse Viaundes
Sauce Alepeuere
Sauce Galentyne
Sauce Gingyuer
Sauce for a Gos
Sauce Camelyne
Sauce Rous
Sauce for Stokefysshe
Sauce for Stokfysshe in an-other maner
Sauce for peiouns
Sauce for Shulder of Moton
Sauce Vert
Surelle
Sauce Percely
Sauce Gauncile
Piper for Feel and for Venysoun
White Sauce
Black Sauce
Sauce Newe for Malardis
Diuersa Cibaria [[29]] / Unknown / England, 14th century / Blanc Desire (White Sauce)
Vert Desire (Green Sauce)
Suade (Elderflower Sauce)
Galantine
Forme of Cury [[30]] / Unknown / England, 14th century / Sobre Sawse
Sawse Blaunche (White Sauce)
Sawse Noyre for Capouns (Black Sauce)
Galyntyne
Gyngeuer
Verde Sawse
Sawse Noyre for Malard (Black Sauce)
Sawse Camelyne
Lumbard Mustard
Libre de Sent Soví [[31]] / Unknown / Catalan (Spain), 15th century / White Sauce
Lemon Sauce
White Garlic Sauce
Fresh Onion Salsa
Mustard
Parsley Sauce
Esquabey Sauce
Libro de Cozina [[32]] / Master Ruperto de Nola / Catalan (Spain), 16th century / White Sauce
Sauce with Apples
Lemon Sauce
Vinagre
Sauce for Graylag Goose
Light Sauce for Wild Poultry
A Dish CalledWhite Sauce
Light Sauce for Roast Doves
Another Light Sauce for Roast Doves
Light Sauce for Roast Poultry
Lights Sauce for Partridges or Roast Chickens
Light Sauce of Bitter Pomegranate Juice
Almond Sauce for Invalida
Another Almond Sauce for Invalids (Weak)
Another Almond Sauce for Invalids (Fever)
White Light Sauce
Sauce Gironfina
Sauce Camelline
White Sauce Camelline
Smooth Sauce for Poultry
Granada Sauce
Dark Sauce
Rosemary Sauce
Agalura Sauce
Garlic Sauce
Mustard
French Mustard
Another French Mustard
Sauce of Horseradish and of Clary Sage
Good Sauce Galantine
Pepper Sauce
Bastard Camelline
Parsley Sauce
Sauce Called Cinnamon Must
Emperor's Sauce

Sauces for Meats & Fish

Table 3 lists various meats & fish with the desired cooking method as well as the appropriate sauce to accompany the dish.[[33]]